Gilroy, 29, signed a one-year, $700,000 deal with the Panthers in July after spending the lockout-shortened ’13 campaign with the Rangers. He had one goal and two points in 16 games with Florida this season, averaging 16:15 TOI per game.

Gilroy is the second veteran defenseman Florida’s waived in recent weeks. On Nov. 8, the club put Ryan Whitney on waivers and, with no takers, proceeded to assign him to AHL San Antonio.

But what does Tallon have to offer other NHL teams? We’ll ignore blue-chippers like Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov; if any of the Panthers’ highly touted youngsters are available, obviously they’ll draw interest.

As for Florida’s veterans? Here are a few to consider:

Tomas Fleischmann: The team’s leading scorer, with 11 points in 15 games. The 29-year-old winger is signed through 2014-15 with a $4.5 million cap hit that would’ve been a lot easier to move in any other season. (Cap space isn’t exactly plentiful for most teams.) But given Rick Nash’s health concerns, might the Rangers have some interest here? Just throwing it out there.

Marcel Goc: A pending unrestricted free agent with a $1.7 million cap hit, this 30-year-old center should be movable. He’s not going to score a ton and he’s got a lengthy injury log that may be concerning, but for a team looking to bolster depth down the middle, Goc could be a target.

Jesse Winchester: Very affordable pending UFA with a cap hit of just $600,000, this 30-year-old forward has four goals and three assists in 16 games. He also doesn’t mind playing physical, with 25 hits.

Shawn Matthias: Signed through 2014-15 with a cap hit of $1.75 million, Matthias is another guy who could bolster a team’s forward depth. The 25-year-old had a career-high 14 goals last season, so there’s scoring potential in him too. Of course, the Panthers may be loathe to trade him, for those exact reasons.

Tom Gilbert: Pending UFA. Low cap hit ($900,000). Gilbert, 30, is logging 21:06 per game on the Panthers’ blue line. Teams are always looking to add extra d-men for the playoffs, though some might want to wait until closer to the spring to do that.

Those five aren’t the only ones that could be available. Far from it. Tallon should also be more than willing to talk about veterans like Kris Versteeg, Scottie Upshall, Brad Boyes, Tomas Kopecky, Sean Bergenheim, Scott Gomez, Mike Weaver, Matt Gilroy and Ryan Whitney.

Basically, if he wasn’t a high draft pick in the past few years, he’s more than likely available.

Gilroy, 28, broke into the NHL with the Rangers in 2009-10 and proceeded to have his finest year during the 2011-12 campaign, when he appeared in 67 games for the Lightning and Senators, scoring 3G-17A-20PTS, finishing plus-6.

In 2013, Gilroy re-joined the Rangers on a one-year pact but only appeared in 15 games, spending the majority of his time with AHL Connecticut.

Gilroy should have a decent shot of making the Florida roster for 2013-14.

Florida lost the services of Tyson Strachan earlier today — he signed with the Capitals — and had already bought out the final year of Filip Kuba’s contract, so there are positions to be won on defense.

The Panthers only currently have five defensemen under contract for next season: Brian Campbell, Ed Jovanovski, Erik Gudbranson, Dmitry Kulikov and Mike Weaver.

Of note, the Panthers also signed former Carolina center Jon Matsumoto today as well.

The New York Rangers were already set to look very different in Game 4 against the Boston Bruins by shockingly scratching Brad Richards. It turns out that won’t be the only lineup alteration.

As the Bergen Record’s Andrew Gross notes, Michael Haley, Kris Newbury, Chris Kreider and Roman Hamrlik will be in the lineup. For injury or perceived performance-related reasons, Richards, Anton Stralman, Marc Staal, Ryane Clowe and Aaron Asham won’t play. (Gross seems perplexed by inserting Haley and Newbury into the mix and also wonders why the Rangers are allowing Hamrlik to make his 2013 postseason debut instead of rolling with Matt Gilroy.)